Dianne Feinsteinhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/dianne-feinstein
en-usFri, 18 Aug 2017 01:42:10 -0400Fri, 18 Aug 2017 01:42:10 -0400The latest news on Dianne Feinstein from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-tapes-trump-senate-testimonyComey responds to Trump's threats of tapes of their conversations: 'Lordy, I hope there are tapes'http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-tapes-trump-senate-testimony
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:56:47 -0400Eliza Relman
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59396c8cd508f820008b4fe4-1101/rtx39nw5.jpg" alt="James Comey" data-mce-source="Jonathan Ernst/Reuters" data-mce-caption="James Comey"></p><p>Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump last month, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that he hopes there are tapes of his private conversations with Trump.</p>
<p>"I've seen the tweet about tapes," Comey said, referring to <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473">Trump's May 12 tweet</a> apparently threatening to release tapes of ostensibly private conversations between himself and Comey.</p>
<p>"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," Comey said.</p>
<p>Comey's comment came in response to questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein about Trump's conversation with Comey in the Oval Office concerning the FBI's investigation into the president's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.</p>
<p>Comey testified that Trump asked him to end the bureau's investigation into Flynn, who was fired by Trump after he misrepresented conversations he had with Russian officials to Vice President Mike Pence. Comey said he was "stunned" by Trump's request, which he interpreted as a "direction," and which the president made directly to Comey after asking all of his top advisers to leave the room.</p>
<p>"Why didn't you stop and say, 'Mr. President, this is wrong, I cannot discuss this with you?'" Feinstein asked.</p>
<p>Comey responded that he was unprepared to respond to the president's question and might have refused Trump's request if he had had more "presence of mind" in the moment.</p>
<p>"It's a great question. Maybe if I was stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in," Comey told Feinstein, adding that he was trying to remember every word Trump was saying in order to memorialize the conversation after the meeting.</p>
<p>"I hope I'll never have another opportunity, but maybe if I did it again, I'd do it differently," Comey added. </p>
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We can all agree with Jim Comey that, Lordy, we hope there are tapes. </p>— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/872830054698536960">June 8, 2017</a>
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<p>Watch the video below:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Comey: “I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy! I hope there are tapes.” <a href="https://t.co/K7EPoHjjMk">https://t.co/K7EPoHjjMk</a></p>— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) <a href="https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/872832140106489858">June 8, 2017</a>
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</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-tapes-trump-senate-testimony#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-center-trump-russia-investigation-what-need-know-2017-7">Paul Manafort is at the center of the Trump-Russia investigation — here's what you need to know about him</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/rod-rosenstein-memo-james-comey-firing-trump-feinstein-2017-5Top Democratic senator: I've read Rod Rosenstein's memo on Comey 3 times, and each time it gets worsehttp://www.businessinsider.com/rod-rosenstein-memo-james-comey-firing-trump-feinstein-2017-5
Thu, 11 May 2017 11:48:09 -0400Michelle Mark
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58155159b28a6471188b51b4-2000/ap427577533891.jpg" alt="dianne feinstein" data-mce-source="Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite" data-mce-caption="This June 4, 2014, file photo shows Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as she talks to reporters at a news conference at on Capitol Hill in Washington."></p><p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on Thursday cast suspicion on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-james-comey-fired-trump-2017-5">memo</a> written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that recommended the firing of James Comey as FBI director, saying in a statement she had grown more "troubled" by its contents after reading it three times.</p>
<p>"The memo appears to have been hastily assembled to justify a preordained outcome," Feinstein said, adding that it read more like a "political document" than "meaningful analysis."</p>
<p>"Given Rosenstein's legal expertise and 27-year Justice Department career, I would have expected him to produce a detailed and comprehensive rationale for Director Comey's firing, including input from the agents and staff who worked with Director Comey," she continued.</p>
<p>Feinstein, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said the memo cited months-old quotes from op-ed articles and media appearances and no current insights from within the FBI.</p>
<p>Feinstein's statement also called for Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse themselves from the "appointment, selection, and reporting of" a special counsel to investigate contacts between associates of President Donald Trump and Russia.</p>
<p>Thursday's statement is one several Feinstein has issued since Comey's Tuesday firing, with each appearing more critical than the previous.</p>
<p>Her <a href="https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=A9FDFAD3-C058-41A9-988A-FCE82FC5E0AB">original</a> statement on Comey's firing was two sentences long and said his replacement "must be strong and independent and will receive a fair hearing in the Judiciary Committee." The following day, Feinstein <a href="https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E4995707-4703-4BA3-89F7-4C03FAF2355A">questioned</a> the timing of Comey's firing and whether it was due to the ongoing Russia investigation.</p>
<p>"If Director Comey was fired to stifle the FBI's Russia investigation — and the timing of this action makes that a real possibility — that simply cannot be allowed to happen," she said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-james-comey-fired-trump-2017-5" >The deputy attorney general laid out why James Comey was fired</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rod-rosenstein-memo-james-comey-firing-trump-feinstein-2017-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-was-latin-americas-richest-country-heres-how-it-fell-apart-2017-7">Venezuela was Latin America’s richest country and now it is in complete crisis — here’s how it fell apart</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/senators-grill-gorsuch-over-absurd-dissent-in-frozen-trucker-case-2017-3Al Franken slams Gorsuch over 'absurd' dissent in frozen-trucker case: 'It makes me question your judgment'http://www.businessinsider.com/senators-grill-gorsuch-over-absurd-dissent-in-frozen-trucker-case-2017-3
Tue, 21 Mar 2017 19:03:36 -0400Michelle Mark
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58d1949ed349f95f008b5ea0-2000/ap17080705271945.jpg" alt="neil gorsuch" data-mce-source="Associated Press/Pablo Martinez Monsivais" data-mce-caption="Franken slams Gorsuch over a 'absurd' dissent in frozen trucker case: 'It makes me question your judgment'"></p><p>Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota blasted Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch during his confirmation hearing Tuesday over a <a href="https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/15/15-9504.pdf">2016 dissent</a>, calling the ruling "absurd" and saying it made him question Gorsuch's judgment.</p>
<p>Gorsuch was the only judge on the 10th Circuit to issue a dissent in the so-called "frozen trucker" ruling — a case Gorsuch's <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/03/neil_gorsuch_s_arrogant_frozen_trucker_opinion_shows_he_wants_to_be_like.html">critics have pointed to</a> as evidence he prioritizes corporations' interests over employee welfare.</p>
<p>The case concerned a TransAm truck driver, Alphonse Maddin, who claimed he was wrongfully fired after he disregarded a supervisor's instructions to stay with a broken down trailer, despite freezing temperatures outside.</p>
<p>Maddin had waited hours in the unheated truck after calling for roadside assistance, and said he grew numb and had slurred speech. He then disobeyed his boss's order and unhooked the truck from the trailer and drove away. TransAm then fired Maddin.</p>
<p>Although the 10th Circuit sided with Maddin, Gorsuch argued that it wasn't the court's job to determine whether TransAm's decision was "a wise or kind one."</p>
<p>"Our only task is to decide whether the decision was an illegal one," Gorsuch wrote. "There's simply no law anyone has pointed us to giving employees the right to operate their vehicles in ways their employers forbid."</p>
<p>During Tuesday's confirmation hearing, Franken grilled Gorsuch on what he would have done in Maddin's place, describing the situation as a choice between freezing to death versus driving dangerously.</p>
<p>"It is absurd to say this company is in its rights to fire him because he made the choice of possibly dying from freezing to death or causing other people to die, possibly by driving an unsafe vehicle," Franken said.</p>
<p>"That's absurd. Now, I had a career in identifying absurdity, and I know it when I see it. And it makes me question your judgment."</p>
<p>Gorsuch replied that he empathized with Maddin, adding "my heart goes out to him."</p>
<p>Franken wasn't the only senator to grill Gorsuch over the dissent — Dianne Feinstein of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois also repeatedly questioned him on his ruling.</p>
<p>"It was 14 degrees below. So cold, but not as cold as your dissent, Judge Gorsuch," Durbin said during the hearing, leading to a tense exchange with Gorsuch.</p>
<p>"All I can tell you is my job is to apply the law you write," Gorsuch said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-gorsuch-dick-durbin-exchange-2017-3" >Trump's Supreme Court pick has testy exchange with top Democratic senator over his work as a professor</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/senators-grill-gorsuch-over-absurd-dissent-in-frozen-trucker-case-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-captured-shocking-footage-inequality-mexico-city-south-africa-economics-apartheid-2017-8">A drone captured shocking footage of inequality in Mexico City and South Africa</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-asks-ftc-to-study-airbnb-2016-7Elizabeth Warren wants the government to study whether Airbnb puts people ‘at risk’http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-asks-ftc-to-study-airbnb-2016-7
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:55:49 -0400Avery Hartmans
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57867cdf4321f1d01a8b7e03-2400/ap_438005015896.jpg" alt="elizabeth warren" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin" data-mce-caption="Elizabeth Warren on Capitol Hill in 2015." /></p><p>Senator Elizabeth Warren wants regulators to look into Airbnb's business practices.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Massachusetts senator, joined by Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, <a href="http://www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Letter%20to%20FTC%20re%20short%20term%20rental%20platforms%207-13-16.pdf" target="_blank">wrote a letter</a> to the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday urging&nbsp;it to examine websites for short-term housing rentals, like Airbnb.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The letter details the senators' concern that while companies like Airbnb and HomeAway "spark innovation," there's reason to be concerned that "short-term rentals may be exacerbating housing shortages and driving up the cost of housing in our communities."</p>
<p>And the senators say they have concerns that communities and consumers "may be put at risk through violations of sensible health, safety and zoning regulations."</p>
<p>Airbnb said it welcomed the opportunity to work with lawmakers.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>"The vast majority of our hosts in Massachusetts, California, Hawaii and across the county are middle class people who depend on home sharing as a way to address economic inequality," Chris Lehane, head of global policy and communications at Airbnb, said in a statement. "<span>We welcome any opportunity to work with lawmakers and regulators who want to learn more about how home sharing helps the middle class address the issue of economic inequality."</span></span></p>
<p>This letter comes less than a week after <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-host-median-income-2016-7" target="_blank">Airbnb released data on its listings</a>, which s<span>tates that Airbnb has taken down 2,233 listings in the last year that appeared to come from hosts listing multiple homes that "could impact long term housing availability." </span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.mfy.org/wp-content/uploads/Shortchanging-NYC.pdf" target="_blank">A&nbsp;conflicting recent report</a> commissioned by advocates for affordable housing </span>states<span>&nbsp;that rental rates are rising most quickly in neighborhoods where Airbnb is popular, and that Airbnb is responsible for gentrifying predominantly minority neighborhoods.</span></p>
<p><span><span>The FTC is already in the process of looking into the on-demand economy as a whole, which included home-sharing sites, <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/technology/287555-warren-joins-colleagues-in-asking-for-probe-of-services-like-airbnb" target="_blank">according to The Hill</a>. Their findings haven't&nbsp;been released yet, but&nbsp;the data that Senators Warren, Schatz and Feinstein are asking for could be included in that report.</span></span>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-legal-filing-execs-face-threats-2016-7" >Uber execs face daily threats, including people 'throwing eggs at their homes'</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-asks-ftc-to-study-airbnb-2016-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-8-easy-fix-common-problems-apple-2017-8">8 easy ways to fix common iPhone problems</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/senate-democrats-orlando-shooting-gun-bill-terror-2016-6'It makes even more sense today': Senate Democrats are reviving a controversial bill after the Orlando massacrehttp://www.businessinsider.com/senate-democrats-orlando-shooting-gun-bill-terror-2016-6
Mon, 13 Jun 2016 18:47:36 -0400Allan Smith
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/575ef24752bcd021008c8b04-2400/rtsggj0.jpg" alt="Chuck Schumer" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Yuri Gripas" data-mce-caption="Sen. Chuck Schumer" /></p><p>Senate Democrats pledged on Monday to reintroduce a bill banning people on the terror watch list from buying weapons in the aftermath of Sunday morning's massacre at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida.</p>
<p>The massacre left at least 49 people dead and dozens&nbsp;more wounded. It was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.</p>
<p>The suspected gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, was born in the US to Afghan parents, and, according to his father, was recently disturbed by seeing two men kissing in Miami.</p>
<p>The shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, as Mateen allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and other terrorist organizations <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-fbi-2016-6">before the attack</a>. The FBI confirmed that it had conducted two terror-related investigations into Mateen in recent years.</p>
<p>During a Monday conference call, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said that, if the bill was passed when first brought before the Senate in December, then the terrorist attack would've been avoided.</p>
<p>In December, just one day following the San Bernardino, California, attacks, Senate Republicans rejected the bill stopping suspected terrorists from buying&nbsp;weapons.&nbsp;<span>The counterargument to the bill is that, since people can be placed on the terror watch list &mdash; also referred to as the no-fly list &mdash; without due process, then a citizen could be stripped of his or her Second Amendment right without due process.</span></p>
<p>The bill failed on a 54-45 party-line vote. North Dakota Sen. Heidi Headlamp was the lone Democrat to vote against the bill while Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk was the lone Republican to vote in favor of it. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, did not vote.</p>
<p>California Sen. Dianne Feinstein sponsored the legislation, and argued, as she did again during the Monday conference call, that former President George W. Bush initially proposed the legislation in 2007.</p>
<p>"Now that we have lone wolves inspired by ISIL, even more [see] the reason to do this than ever before," Schumer said. "It made sense 10 years ago, it makes even more sense today."</p>
<p>The Democratic senator said that the bill might be tucked into a recent appropriations bill brought before the Senate by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid also insisted on Monday that his party will be bringing the bill before Congress "as soon as possible."</p>
<p>"We're just asking for people to come into this country and go out and buy a gun," Feinstein said during the call with reporters, later adding, "Even if you're a suspected terrorist, you can go out and buy a gun. And that's just not right. So I hope there will be a change."</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/575f2da552bcd023008c8f63-1024/gettyimages-539903782.jpg" alt="hillary clinton" data-mce-source="Angelo Merendino/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Hillary Clinton speaking in Ohio in June." /></p>
<p>Both presumptive presidential nominees, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, voiced their opinions on this issue during&nbsp;dueling Monday speeches. Trump promised to do nothing in regards to&nbsp;promoting gun-control legislation, while Clinton expressed solidarity with the Democratic senators.</p>
<p>Clinton said:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">If the FBI is watching you for suspected terrorist links, then you shouldn't be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked. You shouldn't be able to exploit loopholes and evade criminal background checks by buying online or at a gun show. And yes, if you're too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.</p>
<p>Schumer insisted on Monday that the bill will do better this time around.</p>
<p>He said:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The bottom line is we have to keep trying, and I believe our Republican colleagues, particularly so many of them now in a difficult political season, are going to find it very very difficult [to vote against the bill]. We've had two incidents: San Bernardino and now Orlando where this type of legislation would be relevant, making sure the terrorists don't get guns.</p>
<p>He added that the bill will include provisions for a "quick and speedy appeals process" for those placed on the terror watch list.</p>
<p>"Believe me," he said. "President Bush wouldn't have put together a bill that took away people's legitimate rights."</p>
<p>But, he said, rights don't "trump everything."</p>
<p>"We can have both," he continued. "We can have people's rights protected and we can have safety. And that's what this legislation does. As I said, George Bush, who was hardly the strongest advocate of gun control in America, drafted it."</p>
<p>Also on the conference call, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that "all rights have to be balanced."</p>
<p>"No right is absolute," he said, adding that the bill&nbsp;"would provide a due process to remove people from the list ... that is an absolute requirement."</p>
<p>"Many of our Republican colleagues who are hardline on individual rights on this amendment seem to blow those rights away on other amendments," Schumer said. "Hardly consistent."</p>
<p>"In terms of terrorism, this is the most effective piece of legislation we can pass," he continued.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-terror-tweets-2016-6" >There's a surprisingly similar theme in Donald Trump's initial reaction to terror attacks</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/senate-democrats-orlando-shooting-gun-bill-terror-2016-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/domestic-violence-and-gun-control-2016-1">The head of a domestic violence prevention organization says that gun control could have a huge impact</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/season-of-the-witch-san-francisco-history-in-the-1970s-2016-5San Francisco is a wealthy tech haven today — but not long ago it was an apocalyptic madhousehttp://www.businessinsider.com/season-of-the-witch-san-francisco-history-in-the-1970s-2016-5
Mon, 30 May 2016 11:02:25 -0400Matt Rosoff
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/574be62152bcd05c658c5a8c-1280/haight_ashbury11.jpeg" alt="Haight_Ashbury11" data-mce-source="Wikimedia Commons" data-link="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haight-Ashbury#/media/File:Haight_Ashbury11.JPG" /></p><p>When you think about San Francisco, you probably envision&nbsp;tech companies filled with optimistic 20-somethings and restaurants with fancy food. Maybe Alcatraz or the Golden Gate Bridge.</p>
<p>But from the late 1960s through the '70s, the city by the bay was a very different place.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Drugs. Murder. Corruption. Outcasts. That's what San Francisco looked like in the popular imagination &mdash; and that stereotype had a lot of basis in truth.</p>
<p>Journalist David Talbot captured the details of this critical time&nbsp;in his&nbsp;amazing&nbsp;2012 book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Season-Witch-Enchantment-Terror-Deliverance-ebook/dp/B005C6FDFY">Season of the Witch</a>." While I had a vague sense of some of the city's recent history, many of the details will astound you.</p>
<p>Here's what San Francisco was really like a generation ago:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-san-francisco-office-tour-2016-4" >LinkedIn moved into a new skyscraper in San Francisco, and the offices are unlike anything else we've seen</a></strong></p>
<h3>You've probably heard of the 'Summer of Love' in 1967.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/574bb92c52bcd063018c5d96-400-300/youve-probably-heard-of-the-summer-of-love-in-1967.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>That's when people flocked to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district from all over the world, drawn by the city's reputation for unbridled freedom.</p>
<p>You could say it all started on&nbsp;Jan. 14, 1967, as thousands gathered in Golden Gate Park for the "Be-In," a drug-fueled counterculture party.</p>
<p>Talbot writes: "Young people sprawled on the grass, playing pennywhistles, harmonicas, and flutes. Naked toddlers chased their shadows in the sun. Only two mounted policemen patrolled the grounds; one came trotting through the crowd on his horse, cradling a small child in his arms. 'A lost child has been delivered to the stage and is now being cared for by the Hell's Angels' [a motorcycle gang]. It was a time when that made sense."</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Timothy Leary, the former Harvard professor and LSD guru, spoke to the crowd, telling them to "turn on, tune in, drop out."</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/574bba02910584145c8c5988-400-300/timothy-leary-the-former-harvard-professor-and-lsd-guru-spoke-to-the-crowd-telling-them-to-turn-on-tune-in-drop-out.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>But not everybody was sure about the forces being unleashed. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg said to his friend Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "What if we're wrong?"</h3>
<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/574bbbcc91058423008c5af4-400-300/but-not-everybody-was-sure-about-the-forces-being-unleashed-beat-poet-allen-ginsberg-said-to-his-friend-lawrence-ferlinghetti-what-if-were-wrong.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/season-of-the-witch-san-francisco-history-in-the-1970s-2016-5#/#as-the-summer-ended-a-lot-of-the-temporary-hippies-left-the-city-and-headed-back-to-their-hometowns-in-october-1967-there-was-even-a-mock-funeral-for-the-hippie-movement-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-senators-burr-feinstein-discussion-draft-anti-encryption-bill-2016-4This is the US government's new plan to break the security on your iPhonehttp://uk.businessinsider.com/us-senators-burr-feinstein-discussion-draft-anti-encryption-bill-2016-4
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 08:01:00 -0400Rob Price
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57078081dd089560128b4864-2107-1580/gettyimages-169188385.jpg" alt="tim cook apple ceo angry unhappy upset" data-mce-source="Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Apple CEO Timothy Cook returns from a break in his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Investigations Subcommittee about the company's offshore profit shifting and tax avoidance in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. A Congressional report released Monday said that Apple, America's most profitable technology company, used a complex system of international subsidiaries and tax avoidance efforts to shift at least $74 billion from the reach of the Internal Revenue Service between 2009 and 2012."></p><p>We've got our first proper look at an attempt by US senators to legislate against encryption.</p>
<p>Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Richard Burr of North Carolina, both of whom sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, are introducing a bill intended to tackle the rising use of strong encryption technology that cannot be decrypted by anyone without the correct key — including law enforcement and the companies responsible for creating it.</p>
<p>Burr, a Republican, is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Feinstein, a Democrat, is the vice chair.</p>
<p>A discussion draft of the bill began circulating Thursday. <strong>(Scroll down for the full draft.)</strong></p>
<p>Key points include:</p>
<ul>
<li>It forces tech companies to decrypt encrypted data when presented with a court order — or to provide any technical assistance required to decrypt it.</li>
<li>It doesn't provide any technical guidance on how companies can or should achieve this.</li>
<li>Companies will be offered compensation for any assistance they are forced to provide.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Feinstein-Burr efforts received a blow earlier this week when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/06/obama-administration-encryption-law-apple-fbi-privacy">Reuters reported that the White House would not be endorsing it</a>. President Obama has previously spoken out against the alleged dangers of encryption, warning against an "absolutist stance on privacy" <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/3043553/security/obama-on-encryption-its-fetishizing-our-phones-above-every-other-value.html">and asserting that people are</a> "fetishizing our phones above every other value, and that can't be the right answer."</p>
<p>Still, his administration will not be publicly supporting — or opposing — the bill.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56cecefedd0895dd048b491c-3225-2419/rtx13gcz.jpg" alt="iphone 5c iphones colour" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Stephen Lam" data-mce-caption="People check out several versions of the new iPhone 5C after Apple Inc's media event in Cupertino, California September 10, 2013.">The bill comes after a high-profile battle between Apple and the FBI over law-enforcement access to smartphones, hinging on an encrypted iPhone linked to one of the attackers in last year's San Bernardino, California, massacre. The FBI tried to compel Apple to develop software to help it unlock the device, but Apple resisted, arguing that creating the software would be dangerous and make all users less safe.</p>
<p>The FBI backed out of the fight after an unnamed third party was able to hack into the iPhone.</p>
<p>This retreat left important questions in the encryption debate unanswered, including whether the courts can compel tech companies to decrypt encrypted data or to develop tools to enable access to it. The Burr-Feinstein bill is an attempt to provide clarity and a clear legal authority for law enforcement to demand access to data that they believe is necessary for investigations.</p>
<p>The bill requires companies that receive court orders from the government to "provide such information to such government in an intelligible format; or provide such technical assistance as is necessary to obtain such information or data in an intelligible format to achieve the purpose of the court order."</p>
<p>That means companies — upon receipt of a court order — would be compelled to decrypt encrypted data or to develop the technological tools required to do so.</p>
<p>If passed, it would be a fundamental challenge to the kind of strong end-to-end encryption that has proliferated in consumer products in recent years. The entire point of the tech is that it can't be decrypted by anyone without the correct key or password, a measure proponents assert is necessary for protecting users' security and privacy.</p>
<p>Apple, Google, WhatsApp, and others would all have to weaken their security measures or be prepared to develop tools on demand to hack into their users.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/569d1415dd0895c00d8b4589-3476-2607/474608233.jpg" alt="Jan Koum, WhatsApp" data-mce-source="David Ramos/Getty Images">Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University, <a href="https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/718315841687785473">said on Twitter</a> that the bill's forced decryption "doesn't require only reasonable assistance: It's 'assistance as is necessary' to decrypt."</p>
<p>In other words, the bill doesn't take into account the technical challenges that might be required for compliance by companies if their products are not already designed to allow for interception and decryption. When the FBI was trying to force Apple to build software to help it unlock the iPhone using the All Writs Act, <a href="http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=5645#more-5645">some argued that the FBI's demands went far beyond</a> "reasonable assistance" and would place an undue burden on the company.</p>
<p>Under the Feinstein-Burr bill, companies would not have this defense.</p>
<p>The draft provides no technical guidance on how companies should build products to comply, but it says it is not trying to mandate how companies can design their products. "Nothing in this Act may be construed to authorize any government officer to require or prohibit any specific design or operating system to be adopted by any covered entity," it says.</p>
<p>And companies will receive "compensation" for any technical assistance they are compelled to provide.</p>
<p>Predictably, the draft has been received badly by some in the security community. Security researcher Kevin Bankston, director at the Open Tech Institute, <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinBankston/status/718323809636458496">said</a>: "Silicon Valley should be embarrassed by its Senator's anti-encryption bill, which would undermine security, innovation, &amp; the tech economy."</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins cryptography professor Matthew Green <a href="https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/718300928877707264">tweeted that</a> "it's not hard to see why the White House declined to endorse Feinstein-Burr. They took a complex issue, arrived at the most naive solution."</p>
<p>Journalist and policy analyst Julian Sanchez attacked the bill's lack of technical detail on implementation, <a href="https://twitter.com/normative/status/718292808357044224">writing on Twitter</a>: "They spent months, maybe years on this, &amp; the best they could come up with was 'love will find a way'?? This is embarrassing. Or should be."</p>
<h2>Here's the full discussion draft:</h2>
<p><div>
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5buBct5cGDZV3JhdGdHVjFxUE0/preview" width="640" height="480"></iframe>
</div></p><p><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-senators-burr-feinstein-discussion-draft-anti-encryption-bill-2016-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/missing-iphone-features-apple-android-2017-7">5 things the iPhone still can't do</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/us-senators-burr-feinstein-discussion-draft-anti-encryption-bill-2016-4Here's how the US government plans to break the encryption on your smartphonehttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-senators-burr-feinstein-discussion-draft-anti-encryption-bill-2016-4
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 05:56:11 -0400Rob Price
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57078081dd089560128b4864-2107-1580/gettyimages-169188385.jpg" alt="tim cook apple ceo angry unhappy upset" data-mce-source="Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Apple CEO Timothy Cook returns from a break in his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Investigations Subcommittee about the company's offshore profit shifting and tax avoidance in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. A Congressional report released Monday said that Apple, America's most profitable technology company, used a complex system of international subsidiaries and tax avoidance efforts to shift at least $74 billion from the reach of the Internal Revenue Service between 2009 and 2012."></p><p>We've got our first proper look at an attempt by US senators to legislate against encryption.</p>
<p>Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Richard Burr of North Carolina, both of whom sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, are introducing a bill intended to tackle the rising use of strong encryption technology that cannot be decrypted by anyone without the correct key — including law enforcement and the companies responsible for creating it.</p>
<p>Burr, a Republican, is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Feinstein, a Democrat, is the vice chair.</p>
<p>A discussion draft of the bill began circulating Thursday. <strong>(Scroll down for the full draft.)</strong></p>
<p>Key points include:</p>
<ul>
<li>It forces tech companies to decrypt encrypted data when presented with a court order — or to provide any technical assistance required to decrypt it.</li>
<li>It doesn't provide any technical guidance on how companies can or should achieve this.</li>
<li>Companies will be offered compensation for any assistance they are forced to provide.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Feinstein-Burr efforts received a blow earlier this week when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/06/obama-administration-encryption-law-apple-fbi-privacy">Reuters reported that the White House would not be endorsing it</a>. President Obama has previously spoken out against the alleged dangers of encryption, warning against an "absolutist stance on privacy" <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/3043553/security/obama-on-encryption-its-fetishizing-our-phones-above-every-other-value.html">and asserting that people are</a> "fetishizing our phones above every other value, and that can't be the right answer."</p>
<p>Still, his administration will not be publicly supporting — or opposing — the bill.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56cecefedd0895dd048b491c-3225-2419/rtx13gcz.jpg" alt="iphone 5c iphones colour" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Stephen Lam" data-mce-caption="People check out several versions of the new iPhone 5C after Apple Inc's media event in Cupertino, California September 10, 2013.">The bill comes after a high-profile battle between Apple and the FBI over law-enforcement access to smartphones, hinging on an encrypted iPhone linked to one of the attackers in last year's San Bernardino, California, massacre. The FBI tried to compel Apple to develop software to help it unlock the device, but Apple resisted, arguing that creating the software would be dangerous and make all users less safe.</p>
<p>The FBI backed out of the fight after an unnamed third party was able to hack into the iPhone.</p>
<p>This retreat left important questions in the encryption debate unanswered, including whether the courts can compel tech companies to decrypt encrypted data or to develop tools to enable access to it. The Burr-Feinstein bill is an attempt to provide clarity and a clear legal authority for law enforcement to demand access to data that they believe is necessary for investigations.</p>
<p>The bill requires companies that receive court orders from the government to "provide such information to such government in an intelligible format; or provide such technical assistance as is necessary to obtain such information or data in an intelligible format to achieve the purpose of the court order."</p>
<p>That means companies — upon receipt of a court order — would be compelled to decrypt encrypted data or to develop the technological tools required to do so.</p>
<p>If passed, it would be a fundamental challenge to the kind of strong end-to-end encryption that has proliferated in consumer products in recent years. The entire point of the tech is that it can't be decrypted by anyone without the correct key or password, a measure proponents assert is necessary for protecting users' security and privacy.</p>
<p>Apple, Google, WhatsApp, and others would all have to weaken their security measures or be prepared to develop tools on demand to hack into their users.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/569d1415dd0895c00d8b4589-3476-2607/474608233.jpg" alt="Jan Koum, WhatsApp" data-mce-source="David Ramos/Getty Images">Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University, <a href="https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/718315841687785473">said on Twitter</a> that the bill's forced decryption "doesn't require only reasonable assistance: It's 'assistance as is necessary' to decrypt."</p>
<p>In other words, the bill doesn't take into account the technical challenges that might be required for compliance by companies if their products are not already designed to allow for interception and decryption. When the FBI was trying to force Apple to build software to help it unlock the iPhone using the All Writs Act, <a href="http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=5645#more-5645">some argued that the FBI's demands went far beyond</a> "reasonable assistance" and would place an undue burden on the company.</p>
<p>Under the Feinstein-Burr bill, companies would not have this defense.</p>
<p>The draft provides no technical guidance on how companies should build products to comply, but it says it is not trying to mandate how companies can design their products. "Nothing in this Act may be construed to authorize any government officer to require or prohibit any specific design or operating system to be adopted by any covered entity," it says.</p>
<p>And companies will receive "compensation" for any technical assistance they are compelled to provide.</p>
<p>Predictably, the draft has been received badly by some in the security community. Security researcher Kevin Bankston, director at the Open Tech Institute, <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinBankston/status/718323809636458496">said</a>: "Silicon Valley should be embarrassed by its Senator's anti-encryption bill, which would undermine security, innovation, &amp; the tech economy."</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins cryptography professor Matthew Green <a href="https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/718300928877707264">tweeted that</a> "it's not hard to see why the White House declined to endorse Feinstein-Burr. They took a complex issue, arrived at the most naive solution."</p>
<p>Journalist and policy analyst Julian Sanchez attacked the bill's lack of technical detail on implementation, <a href="https://twitter.com/normative/status/718292808357044224">writing on Twitter</a>: "They spent months, maybe years on this, &amp; the best they could come up with was 'love will find a way'?? This is embarrassing. Or should be."</p>
<h2>Here's the full discussion draft:</h2>
<p><div>
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5buBct5cGDZV3JhdGdHVjFxUE0/preview" width="640" height="480"></iframe>
</div></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-senators-burr-feinstein-discussion-draft-anti-encryption-bill-2016-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cell-phone-history-cars-mobile-motorola-apple-bell-labs-samsung-google-2017-7">Here’s how drastically cell phones have changed over the past 40 years</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-dianne-feinstein-torture-critic-surveillance-defender-2014-12Meet The Woman Who Blew The Lid Off The CIA Torture Programhttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-dianne-feinstein-torture-critic-surveillance-defender-2014-12
Sat, 13 Dec 2014 09:15:00 -0500Michael Mathes
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/548bed665afbd3a1208b4567-800/afp-dianne-feinstein-torture-critic-surveillance-defender.jpg" border="0" alt="Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (C)speaks to reporters about the committee's report on CIA interrogations at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, December 9, 2014"></p><p>Washington (AFP) - From her days as a local politician to her role as the US Senate's chief intelligence overseer, Dianne Feinstein has been forced to confront human wickedness on levels personal and political.</p>
<p>As a San Francisco official she held a slain colleague in her arms moments after a gunman's bullets cut him down.</p>
<p>As chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee since 2009, she has been privy to details of the war on terror and extremists who have killed Americans.</p>
<p>Feinstein pushed back against the savagery this week, in a way that could define her career.</p>
<p>She released a 500-page report summary detailing ghastly interrogation practices by the CIA which she and others say amount to torture of detainees.</p>
<p>It capped a years-long effort to investigate and expose the enhanced interrogation techniques of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose leaders she infuriated last March when she dropped a bombshell by publicly accusing its agents of spying on Senate computers.</p>
<p>"I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution," Feinstein declared in a dramatic floor speech.</p>
<p>The case recalled the dark years of the agency, and Feinstein said it pained her to expose it to the public.</p>
<p>It triggered one of the worst rows between Congress and the intelligence community, but the matter was too grave to ignore.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As investigators put finishing touches on their massive probe, she said, the CIA breached Senate computers in a bid to delete files confirming the committee's suspicions.</p>
<p>It was amid such frayed ties that Feinstein, following an intense tug-of-war with the CIA and White House, released a declassified version of the report Tuesday, offering 20 damning conclusions about the ineffectiveness and brutality of many post-9/11 interrogations.</p>
<p>"Excellent," is how Senator John Rockefeller described Feinstein's performance this week.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"I've worked really closely with her," Rockefeller told AFP on Friday.</p>
<p>"We've dealt with the same issues. I sit right beside her, and I think she's done a wonderful job."</p>
<p>Feinstein, 81, has lost none of her fighting spirit, but the intensity of negotiations over the report appears to have left a mark.</p>
<p>Approached by reporters as she headed to yet another classified briefing ahead of the report's publication, she said "I don't even know what day it is."</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>- Snowden's 'treason' -</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Since entering the Senate in 1993, Feinstein has become one of the US elected officials most knowledgeable about her portfolio.</p>
<p>Twice a week, the committee meets behind closed doors to receive briefings by top intelligence officials.</p>
<p>In 2011 the CIA called her the day before special forces conducted their raid against Osama bin Laden.</p>
<p>Feinstein grew up in the liberal stronghold of San Francisco. It was a political baptism by fire.</p>
<p>She became mayor in 1978 under tragic circumstances, after she discovered the bodies of mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk seconds after they were shot.</p>
<p>"I found Harvey on his stomach. I tried to get a pulse and put my finger through a bullet hole. He was clearly dead," she recounted to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008.</p>
<p>Feinstein has campaigned relentlessly for stronger US gun laws. After a school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, she introduced an automatic weapons ban in the Senate. It failed.</p>
<p>She joins Senate Republican John McCain in calling for closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 100 remain detained.</p>
<p>While she votes liberal on many social and economic issues, Feinstein has faced criticism from civil liberties groups for staunchly supporting the National Security Agency.</p>
<p>Following Edward Snowden's explosive revelations in June 2013, she defended NSA surveillance methods.</p>
<p>"If you sit, I think, in our shoes, you want to protect America," she said.</p>
<p>The "Prism" program that intercepted electronic communications on Facebook and other websites abroad was vital, she insisted.</p>
<p>And Snowden? Feinstein slammed his revelations as "an act of treason."</p>
<p>When ambitious reforms were introduced that would rein in the NSA and unambiguously end its systematic collection of telephone "metadata" from millions of Americans, she sought to water them down.</p>
<p>"On human rights protections she can be very, very, very strong," American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative counsel Chris Anders told AFP, adding that Feinstein's torture report will have an impact for the next 50-100 years.</p>
<p>"But yes, on surveillance issues it's been a difficult relationship."</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-dianne-feinstein-torture-critic-surveillance-defender-2014-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-spied-senate-computers-torture-investigation-2014-7The CIA Just Admitted It Spied On Senate Computers — Senator Calls For Director's Resignationhttp://www.businessinsider.com/cia-spied-senate-computers-torture-investigation-2014-7
Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:28:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/51150fff69beddb37d000024-1200-800/160894397.jpg" border="0" alt="160894397" /></p><p>CIA Director John Brennan apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders on Thursday for the CIA improperly accessing a stand-alone computer network established for the committee as part of an investigation into the George W. Bush-era detention and interrogation programs. The extraordinary apology led at least one senator to call for his resignation.</p>
<p>The apology from Brennan came <span>after months of public denials from the intelligence agency and</span>&nbsp;ahead of the public release of an Inspector General's report that found the CIA conducted improper searches of Senate computers. Brennan was briefed that the report would document the searches prior to his apology.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"Director Brennan was briefed on the CIA OIG&rsquo;s findings, which include a judgment that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between SSCI [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] and the CIA in 2009 regarding access to [the network]," CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement. "The Director subsequently informed the SSCI Chairman and Vice Chairman of the findings and apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the OIG report."</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Boyd said Brennan would commission an "accountability board" to "correct any shortcomings." The board will be chaired by former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.</span></p>
<p>"This Board will review the OIG report, conduct interviews as needed, and provide the Director with recommendations that, depending on its findings, could include potential disciplinary measures and/or steps to address systemic issues," Boyd said.</p>
<p>Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said the findings raised "grave concern" about the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado), a committee member, said he had lost confidence in Brennan. Later Thursday afternoon, he called for Brennan's resignation.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan," Udall said. The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution&rsquo;s requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences."<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The fight between the CIA and the committee first exploded out in the open in March, when Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-California) </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-may-have-violated-constitution-2014-3" target="_blank">ripped into the agency and said it may have violated the U.S. Constitution</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;during a dramatic speech on the Senate floor. At the time, Brennan denied Feinstein's claims and said they were "beyond the scope of reason."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The CIA provided Congress with the computers as part of the investigation into the interrogation program to allow the committee to review classified documents at CIA headquarters. T</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">he incident in question arose in December, when committee investigators got ahold of an internal agency review casting a particularly bad light on the interrogation and detention programs, which were ended by President Barack Obama.</span></p>
<p class="p1">CIA officials then searched the computers to try to determine how the committee investigators had gained access to the information, Feinstein said in March. She added that the committee did nothing improper to gain access to the internal reports.</p>
<p class="p1">"The investigation confirmed what I said on the Senate floor in March&mdash;CIA personnel inappropriately searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers in violation of an agreement we had reached, and I believe in violation of the constitutional separation of powers," Feinstein said in a statement Thursday.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>This post was originally published at 1:23 p.m. ET. It was updated at 5:27 p.m. ET to reflect new developments.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-spied-senate-computers-torture-investigation-2014-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/raymond-chow-letter-of-congratulations-us-senator-2014-4How An Alleged San Francisco Gangster Ended Up With A 'Letter Of Congratulations' From A US Senator http://www.businessinsider.com/raymond-chow-letter-of-congratulations-us-senator-2014-4
Thu, 03 Apr 2014 15:00:00 -0400Hunter Walker
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/533da8e1eab8ea80500c755f-800-/883926_494096080650855_1074413546_o.jpg" border="0" alt="Raymond Chow" width="800" /></p><p></p>
<p>By his own account, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, one of the central figures in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leland-yee-2014-4" target="_blank"> massive criminal probe that ensnared California State Senator Leland Yee</a> last month, once ruled over the criminal underworld in San Francisco's Chinatown. However, after being released from federal prison in 2006, Chow <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1463259/reformed-gangster-raymond-shrimp-boy-chow-caught-fbis-net" target="_blank">claimed to have turned over a new leaf</a>. He gave speeches to schools and community groups and even <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raymond-Shrimp-Boy-Chow-%E5%91%A8%E5%9C%8B%E7%A5%A5/320363858024079" target="_blank">created a Facebook page</a>. He described himself as a "reformed soldier" and posted a trio of honors from politicians featuring his name, including what Chow labeled a "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=395080903885707&amp;set=pb.320363858024079.-2207520000.1396549520.&amp;type=3&amp;theater" target="_blank">letter of congratulations</a>" from Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.</p>
<p>In the wake of Chow's arrest on money laundering charges and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leland-yee-2014-4" target="_blank">allegations from the FBI</a> that he "holds a '489' position in the Triad, which is an internationally-based Chinese organized crime group," the official recognitions he has received have <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/28/6277946/fbi-sting-cracks-reformed-image.html" target="_blank">raised eyebrows</a>, and a spokesperson for Feinstein explained to Business Insider how Chow ended up with the letter.</p>
<p>"Senator Feinstein did not award Mr. Chow. She often writes congratulatory messages on behalf of California organizations. In this case, each year she sends a letter to Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services regarding their 'In the Trenches' honorees. Those individuals were selected by Bayview, not Senator Feinstein. The letter was addressed to the organization, not any individual," the spokesperson said.</p>
<p>Chow was <a href="http://sfreentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/10th_annual_trenches_flyer_2012.pdf" target="_blank">named as a "change agent"</a> at the "In The Trenches" award ceremony held July 21, 2012. The awards are presented by Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services and are given to people "who have changed their lives for the better ... change agents, who have made positive impacts in people&rsquo;s lives ... [and] community leaders." The letter from Feinstein was dated July 21, 2012 and was addressed to the director of the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center, Suzy Tyner. It featured Chow's name along with all the other "In The Trenches" honorees.</p>
<p>The other two political plaudits posted on Chow's Facebook page also appear to be related to his "change agent" award. Chow received a "certificate of recognition" from state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano dated June 29, 2012 and a "certificate of honor" from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on the day of the award ceremony. The text on Chow's certificate from Lee also referenced the award.</p>
<p>"I am pleased to recognize and honor Raymond Chow for his tenacity and willingness to give back to the community and working 'in the trenches' as a Change Agent," Lee wrote.</p>
<p>Lee's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the letter on Tuesday. Ammiano <a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/03/ex-con-shrimp-boy-linked-to-yee-arrest-was-honored-by-feinstein-ammiano.html" target="_blank">gave a statement to the Sacramento Bee</a> about the certificate he gave to Chow late last month and said it was requested by Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services.</p>
<p>"One of the ceremonial aspects of being in the Assembly is providing recognition to people in the district at the request of respected community organizations," said Ammiano. "It appears that my office provided such a recognition to Raymond Chow as a 'change agent' at the request of the Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services organization. The group acknowledged Chow's efforts at reform and helping others. That is all there is to it."</p>
<p>Following his arrest, Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services seems eager to distance themselves from Chow. The group's executive director, Cathy Davis, criticized Chow in <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1463259/reformed-gangster-raymond-shrimp-boy-chow-caught-fbis-net" target="_blank">an interview with the Los Angeles Times</a> published Thursday.</p>
<p>"He really made a bad name for a lot of people we try to honour," Davis said.</p>
<p>According to an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leland-yee-2014-4" target="_blank">affidavit given by FBI special agent Emmanuel Pascua</a> and filed in federal court March 23, one of the "official acts" Yee allegedly performed in exchange for bribes was issuing an official state senate proclamation honoring the Chee Kung Tong, a fraternal organization based in San Francisco's Chinatown of which Yee is "the Dragonhead," or leader. The affidavit also said the undercover FBI investigators learned Chow was "in charge of a criminal element" of the Chee Kung Tong.</p>
<p>Though Pascua said FBI investigators were led to Yee by a Chee Kung Tong associate whom Chow introduced to undercover agents, the state senator and the gangster do not seem to have been on good terms. In 2011, Pascua said Chow ate dinner with an undercover agent where he said "he helped Senator Yee enough already," and "explained that Senator Yee made a big mistake" by not "supporting" him "on one occasion."</p>
<p>Chow has not responded to requests for comment from Business Insider. However, in an update <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=670124569714671&amp;set=a.348704995189965.78978.320363858024079&amp;type=1&amp;stream_ref=10" target="_blank">posted on his Facebook page on March 29</a>, three days after his arrest, Chow suggested the allegations against him have been exaggerated.</p>
<p>"Don't believe everything you read or hear. Make your decision after you meet me and get to know me," he wrote. "I got to laugh today and I hope this photo does the same for you."</p>
<p>View the letter from Feinstein, Chow's Facebook post, and the certificates from Lee and Ammiano below.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/533da8256da81102124e3a57-698-960/391552_395080903885707_299558294_n-1.jpg" border="0" alt="feinsteinletterraymondchow" width="800" /></p>
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<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/533da85169bedd7e6b27b036-695-960/432068_393397807387350_721303100_n.jpg" border="0" alt="ed lee raymond chow letter " width="800" /></p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/533da885ecad04b71327b031-695-960/418450_394110063982791_605527206_n.jpg" border="0" alt="ammiano letter raymond chow" width="800" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/raymond-chow-letter-of-congratulations-us-senator-2014-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-stewart-dianne-feinstein-cia-scandal-daily-show-spying-nsa-2014-3Jon Stewart Destroys Dianne Feinstein For CIA Spying Hypocrisyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/jon-stewart-dianne-feinstein-cia-scandal-daily-show-spying-nsa-2014-3
Thu, 13 Mar 2014 09:15:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5321acd2eab8eaae63537935-1200-924/jon-stewart-feinstein.png" border="0" alt="Jon Stewart Feinstein" /></p><p>Jon Stewart tore into Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday night's "Daily Show," ripping her for what he perceived as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-may-have-violated-constitution-2014-3" target="_blank">hypocrisy in a burgeoning CIA spying scandal</a>.</p>
<p><span>In an extraordinary, charged speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Feinstein levied charges that the CIA may have broken the law and violated the U.S. Constitution when it searched the computer network established for Congress.&nbsp;</span><span>The incident in question occurred in December, when Intelligence Committee investigators got ahold of an internal agency review casting a particularly bad light on the CIA's Bush-era interrogation and detention programs.</span><span><br /></span></p>
<p><span>But Stewart took on Feinstein because she has offered full-throated defenses of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span>"See she doesn't mind that if our security apparatus might be looking at your stuff, cause your stuff is s&mdash;," Stewart said. "<span>But her s&mdash; is&nbsp;</span><em>stuff.</em>"</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Stewart said it was shocking the allegations were not coming from more privacy-focused senators, like Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden or Kentucky Republican Rand Paul. Rather, they came from "Dianne 'so the NSA is looking at your data' Feinstein."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>He also didn't hold back on CIA Director John Brennan, who said Tuesday that Feinstein's allegations were "beyond the scope of reason."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"Beyond the scope of reason?" he said. "Y'all overthrew Iran and Chile, orchestrated the assassination of the first democratically elected prime minister of the Congo, wiretapped journalists and anti-war activists, and carried out a mind-control experiment with LSD on prisoners. </span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"I guess what I'm saying is, you're very busy doing a lot of things. Maybe you didn't steal the files because you were busy. And that's what interns are for.&rdquo;</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Watch the full clip below, courtesy of Comedy Central:</span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<div style="background-color: #000000; width: 520px;">
<div style="padding: 4px;"><iframe width="512" height="288" frameborder="0" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:433695"></iframe>
<p style="text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 4px; margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>The Daily Show</strong> <br />Get More: <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/">Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow">The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p>
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</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-stewart-dianne-feinstein-cia-scandal-daily-show-spying-nsa-2014-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-2014-3Sen. Dianne Feinstein: The Woman Who Could Rein In The CIAhttp://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-2014-3
Tue, 11 Mar 2014 21:58:04 -0400Francine Kiefer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/531fbdf5eab8ea430662e5c9-480-/dianne-feinstein-13.jpg" border="0" alt="Dianne Feinstein" width="480" /></p><p></p>
<p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein&nbsp;is not to be trifled with. As the Democratic chairman of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Senate+Committee+on+Intelligence" target="_self" title="Title: U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">Senate Committee on Intelligence</a>, the senior senator from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/California" target="_self" title="Title: California" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">California</a>&nbsp;has staunchly defended America&rsquo;s intelligence community even as the world has railed against its mass surveillance of phone records. So when she takes to the Senate floor to say that the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Central+Intelligence+Agency" target="_self" title="Title: Central Intelligence Agency" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">CIA</a>&nbsp;&ldquo;may well have violated&rdquo; the Constitution in interfering with her committee&rsquo;s investigation of the agency, that&rsquo;s a serious allegation.</p>
<p>It may also signal more muscular senatorial oversight of America&rsquo;s spymasters, a function that has weakened over the decades since the 1975 Church Committee &ndash; led by the late Sen. Frank Church of Idaho &ndash; investigated the country&rsquo;s intelligence agencies in the wake of Watergate and the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>&ldquo;After several decades of erosion of legislative oversight power and authority, a powerful committee chair is saying &lsquo;That&rsquo;s enough,&rsquo; &rdquo; says&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Richard+Baker" target="_self" title="Title: Richard Baker" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">Richard Baker</a>, co-author of the new book, &ldquo;The American Senate: An Insider&rsquo;s History.&rdquo; The oversight of US intelligence agencies is a crucial congressional function, and this faceoff is &ldquo;extremely weighty,&rdquo; says the Senate historian emeritus.</p>
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<p>Senator Feinstein, he says, &ldquo;enjoys a huge amount of respect and is very thoughtful&hellip;. If somebody&rsquo;s going to draw the line, she&rsquo;s the one to do it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She certainly did that on Tuesday. In an unusual and detailed speech, she parted the curtains on a committee investigation of the CIA&rsquo;s detention and interrogation program begun in 2002 &ndash; under President George W. Bush &ndash; and which is now defunct.</p>
<p>During the course of the committee&rsquo;s investigation, which was conducted on separate computers for Senate staff at a secure location in northern Virginia, the CIA multiple times denied committee staff access to documents that the agency had previously provided, according to Feinstein. It also conducted a search of committee computers at the facility, she says. The matter has since been referred to the Justice Department for investigation.</p>
<p>Feinstein spoke out Tuesday to &ldquo;set the record straight&rdquo; in the face of various articles in the media about the investigation. She said, for instance, that her staff&rsquo;s removal of printouts of a CIA internal review of the program, called &ldquo;the Panetta review,&rdquo; was perfectly legal and done according to security protocol. Although she acknowledged that taking a copy of the review violated an agreement with the CIA not to remove anything without prior clearance.</p>
<p>The agency&rsquo;s interference with the committee&rsquo;s work &ldquo;may well have violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States" target="_self" title="Title: United States" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">United States</a>&nbsp;Constitution,&rdquo; she said, and she accused the CIA of &ldquo;intimidating&rdquo; staff. CIA Director John Brennan on Tuesday denied the agency was trying to stop the committee&rsquo;s work or that it had hacked into the committee&rsquo;s computers.</p>
<p>Senate expert Baker points to decades of mistrust between the CIA and Senate oversight. &ldquo;The CIA and the Senate investigating committees have had a rather rocky relationship ever since the days of the Church Committee in 1975,&rdquo; he explained.</p>
<p>Perhaps with the exception of the Iran-Contra investigation during the Reagan presidency, the Senate has shied away from the massive investigations that characterized the Church era, according to Baker. They were too time consuming, required large staffs, and took place in highly partisan conditions.</p>
<p>Instead, senators have turned to outside commissions, such as the bipartisan 9/11 Commission that looked at how the US failed to connect the dots that led to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s not clear how this complaint will turn out, but it would help strengthen Feinstein&rsquo;s case if she had bipartisan backing. Senators in her own party are standing behind her. Two of the Senate&rsquo;s Republican hawks,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/John+McCain" target="_self" title="Title: John McCain" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">John McCain</a>&nbsp;of Arizona and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Lindsey+Graham" target="_self" title="Title: Lindsey Graham" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">Lindsey Graham</a>&nbsp;of South Carolina, also spoke out.</p>
<p>"If true, this is Richard Nixon stuff," Senator Graham said, suggesting those responsible should be fired, according to the Los Angeles Times. Senator McCain said there may be a need for an independent investigation. If Feinstein&rsquo;s allegation&rsquo;s stand up, there must be &ldquo;repercussions,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>But several other Republicans were reserving judgment, including the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Intelligence, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s disagreement as to what the actual facts are,&rdquo; he said, even as CIA Director Brennan urged senators to &ldquo;take their time to make sure that they don&rsquo;t overstate what they claim.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In closing, Feinstein called this a &ldquo;defining moment&rdquo; for the committee&rsquo;s oversight role. &ldquo;How this will be resolved will show whether the Intelligence Committee can be effective in monitoring and investigating our nation&rsquo;s intelligence activities, or whether our work can be thwarted by those we oversee.&rdquo;</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s a strong statement from the California senator, who, according to McCain, he wouldn&rsquo;t try to &ldquo;second guess.&rdquo;</p>
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</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-2014-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-spying-torture-report-2014-3Congress Is Going To War With The CIAhttp://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-spying-torture-report-2014-3
Tue, 11 Mar 2014 16:31:52 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/531f628aecad040c78ec91c1-800-/dianne-feinstein-11.jpg" border="0" alt="Dianne Feinstein" width="800" /></p><p></p>
<p>It started with a remarkable statement Senate Intelligence Committee Chair <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-may-have-violated-constitution-2014-3" target="_blank">Dianne Feinstein's made from the Senate floor Tuesday morning</a>, and it continued amid a barrage of angry statements from senators later in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Congress is going to war with the Central Intelligence Agency, spurred by Feinstein's allegation the agency&nbsp;<span>may have broken the law and violated the U.S. Constitution by searching a&nbsp;</span><span>stand-alone congressional computer network.&nbsp;</span><span><br /></span></p>
<p>Feinstein's scathing comments, which Vermont Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy said were among the most important in Senate floor history, opened up a public chapter in a long simmering dispute.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>"The CIA did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it," Feinstein said in her blistering remarks. "Instead, the CIA just went and searched the committee's computer."</span></p>
<p>The CIA provided Congress with the computer network to allow the Senate Intelligence Committee to review classified documents at CIA headquarters&nbsp;as part of an investigation into the CIA's Bush-era detention and interrogation programs. The incident in question occurred in December, when Intelligence Committee investigators got ahold of an internal agency review casting a particularly bad light on the interrogation and detention programs, which were ended by President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>According to Feinstein, CIA officials then searched the computers to try to determine how the congressional investigators gained access to the information, Feinstein. Feinstein emphasized that the committee did nothing improper to gain access to the internal reports.</p>
<p>During an event at the Council on Foreign Relations, CIA Director John Brennan <a href="http://www.cfr.org/intelligence/conversation-john-o-brennan/p32563?cid=rss-defenseandsecurity-a_conversation_with_john_o._br-031114&amp;utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">denied</a> the allegations, saying "nothing could be further from the truth." However, numerous Senate power players, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, backed up Feinstein's charges and called for increased scrutiny on the CIA.</p>
<p><span>"I believe in the separation of powers. I support Sen. Feinstein unequivocally," Reid told reporters in Capitol Hill on Tuesday. "And I'm disappointed that the CIA is apparently unrepentant on what I understand they did."</span></p>
<p><span>Other senators from both parties also supported Feinstein's accusations.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span>"I applaud Chairman Feinstein for setting the record straight today on the Senate floor about the CIA's actions to subvert congressional oversight," said Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Udall went on to say the CIA was "</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">trying to hide the truth from the American people about this program and undermine the Senate Intelligence Committee's oversight role." Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, another member of the Intelligence Committee, called the CIA's actions an "unprecedented invasion." Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said Congress should declare "war" if the allegations are true.</span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span>Feinstein's criticism is particularly important because she has been one of the staunchest defenders of intelligence agencies. This includes full-throated defenses of the National Security Agency amid detailed revelations of surveillance programs from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden last summer. She called Snowden a <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/304573-sen-feinstein-snowdens-leaks-are-treason" target="_blank">traitor</a>&nbsp;for leaking the documents.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>"When you've lost Dianne Feinstein," one congressional source told Business Insider, "you're in trouble as an intelligence agency."</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p>Committee staffers have for four years been sifting through the&nbsp;6,000-plus page CIA report on the Bush-era programs. Part of the report cites information from the document detailing the "Panetta Review," which was named after former CIA Director Leon Panetta.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">CIA officials said through press reports they did not make the document available to Congress, something Feinstein denied.&nbsp;<span>She pointed to the press reports as the reason for giving her speech.</span><span><br /></span></span></p>
<p>"Our staff involved in this matter have the appropriate clearances, handled this sensitive material according to established procedures and practice to protect classified information, and were provided access to the Panetta Review by the CIA itself," Feinstein said.</p>
<p>Thus far, the White House has tried to walk a fine line between the two warring factions by offering signals of support for both Feinstein and Brennan. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters President Barack Obama has "full confidence" in Brennan, though he also noted the White House supports the declassification of the report.</p>
<p>Some senators, too, were careful not to rush to judgment. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio <a href="http://bloom.bg/1gnIP0o" target="_blank">told Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;there should be an "impartial investigation." Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, simply called for "more facts."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-spying-torture-report-2014-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-may-have-violated-constitution-2014-3Senator Dianne Feinstein Rips The CIA, Says It May Have Violated Constitution By Spying On Congresshttp://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-may-have-violated-constitution-2014-3
Tue, 11 Mar 2014 09:58:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5237d5f3eab8ea1a378ca730-1200-858/ap13061214795.jpg" border="0" alt="Dianne Feinstein" /></p><p></p>
<p>Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said during a stunning speech the Senate floor Tuesday morning that the Central Intelligence Agency may have broken the law and violated the Constitution by searching a&nbsp;<span>stand-alone computer network established for Congress.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>Feinstein accused the CIA of searching the congressional network in January, during the Senate Intelligence Committee's ongoing investigation into the agency's detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1">Feinstein said the matter has been referred to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"I have grave concerns that the CIA search may well have violated the separation of powers principles," Feinstein said. She added that she was "not taking it lightly," insinuating it was an attempt at intimidation.</span></p>
<p class="p1">The CIA provided Congress with the computers as part of the investigation so the committee could review classified documents at CIA headquarters.&nbsp;<span>Each&nbsp;</span><span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/us/politics/behind-clash-between-cia-and-congress-a-secret-report-on-interrogations.html" target="_blank">side has accused the other of spying</a><span>. But the incident in question arose in December, when Intelligence Committee investigators got ahold of an internal agency review casting a particularly bad light on the interrogation and detention programs, which were ended by President Barack Obama.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span>CIA officials then searched the computers to try to determine how the committee investigators had gained access to the information, Feinstein said. She added that the committee did nothing improper to gain access to the internal reports.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span><span>"The CIA just went and searched the committee's computers," Feinstein said, breathlessly.</span></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span><span>Later on Tuesday, CIA Director John Brennan disputed the allegations, saying "nothing could be further from the truth."</span></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span><span><span>"That's just beyond the scope of reason," Brennan said during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="p1">After Feinstein's speech, Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy called it historic and said he couldn't think of a more important one in Senate history.. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid commended her for outlining "one of the most important principles we must maintain &mdash; separation of powers."</p>
<p class="p1">Feinstein opened the Senate's Tuesday session after an all-night session during which 30 Democratic senators waged a "talk-a-thon" on the topic of climate change. She repeatedly said she was speaking "reluctantly," because of inaccurate press reports over the past few weeks.</p>
<p class="p1">Feinstein spoke for more than 40 minutes.</p>
<p>Here is Feinstein's full statement:</p>
<p><iframe width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/211881577/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined"></iframe></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-cia-may-have-violated-constitution-2014-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/key-us-senator-dianne-feinstein-objects-to-part-of-obamas-spy-data-plan-2014-1Key US Senator Dianne Feinstein Objects To Part Of Obama's Spy Data Planhttp://www.businessinsider.com/key-us-senator-dianne-feinstein-objects-to-part-of-obamas-spy-data-plan-2014-1
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 16:07:28 -0500Reuters
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/52dc3da0ecad04d24ac75721-480-/dianne-feinstein-7.jpg" border="0" alt="Dianne Feinstein" width="480" /></p><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee objected on Sunday to President <a>Barack Obama</a>'s proposal for the government to give up control of the storage of the telephone records of millions of Americans it holds as part of its counterterrorism efforts.</p>
<p>Obama on Friday announced an overhaul of U.S. surveillance activities following criticism sparked by the disclosure of leaked documents exposing the wide reach of <a>National Security Agency</a> spy efforts.</p>
<p>He proposed an overhaul of the government's handling of bulk telephone "metadata" - lists of million of phone calls made by Americans that show which numbers were called and when.</p>
<p>Obama said the government will not hold the bulk telephone records. A presidential advisory panel had recommended that the data be controlled by a third party such as telephone companies, but Obama did not propose who should store the phone information in the future.</p>
<p>Signaling congressional opposition to the change, Democratic Senator <a>Dianne Feinstein</a>, who heads the intelligence panel, criticized the idea of moving the data out of government control.</p>
<p>"I think that's a very difficult thing because the whole purpose of this program is to provide instantaneous information to be able to disrupt any plot that may be taking place," Feinstein told the NBC program "Meet the Press."</p>
<p>"I think a lot of the privacy people (advocates) perhaps don't understand that we still occupy the role of the 'Great Satan,' new bombs are being devised, new terrorists are emerging, new groups - actually, a new level of viciousness. And I think we need to be prepared," she added.</p>
<p>Obama asked Attorney General <a>Eric Holder</a> and the intelligence community to report back to him by March 28 on how to preserve the necessary capabilities of the program without the government holding the metadata.</p>
<p>The usefulness of keeping the metadata records was questioned by a presidential review panel, which found that while the program had produced some leads for counterterrorism investigators, such data had not been decisive in a single case.</p>
<p>Representative <a>Mike Rogers</a>, the Republican chairman of the House of <a>Representatives Intelligence Committee</a>, faulted Obama for creating uncertainty surrounding the program.</p>
<p>"Just in my conversations over the weekend with intelligence officials, this new level of uncertainty is already having a bit of an impact on our ability to protect Americans by finding terrorists who are trying to reach into the <a>United States</a>," Rogers told CNN's "State of the Union."</p>
<p>Democratic Senator <a>Mark Udall</a>, a member of the intelligence panel, urged an end to the collection of metadata.</p>
<p>"We can be effective in protecting our country but we don't need to collect every single phone record of every single American on every single day," he told the CBS program "Face the Nation."</p>
<p>Feinstein expressed doubt that a proposal to end the collection of such data could pass in <a>Congress</a>, adding: "The president has very clearly said that he wants to keep the capability."</p>
<p>(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Jim Loney and Meredith Mazzilli)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/key-us-senator-dianne-feinstein-objects-to-part-of-obamas-spy-data-plan-2014-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/rogers-feinstein-not-safer-terror-threats-intelligence-snowden-2013-12Congressional Intelligence Chairs Shock CNN Anchor By Saying 'We're Not Safer' Today From Terror Threatshttp://www.businessinsider.com/rogers-feinstein-not-safer-terror-threats-intelligence-snowden-2013-12
Sun, 01 Dec 2013 11:22:43 -0500Brett LoGiurato
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/529b60a3eab8eac42cb6dcd3-875-656/candy-crowley.png" border="0" alt="Candy Crowley" />The chairs of the congressional intelligence committees surprised CNN anchor Candy Crowley on Sunday by saying that the U.S. is "not safer" today from terror threats than it was in recent years.</span></p>
<p><span>Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made that claim in a joint interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.</span></p>
<p><span>Crowley began the interview by asking a familiar question to Feinstein.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span>"Are we safer now than we were a year ago, two years ago?" she said.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"I don't think so," Feinstein said. "I think terror is up worldwide &mdash; the statistics indicate that. The fatalities are way up. The numbers are way up. There are new bombs &mdash; very big bombs. There are trucks being reinforced for those bombs. There are bombs that go through magnetometers. The bomb-maker is still alive. There are more groups than ever. And there is huge malevolence out there."</span></span></span></p>
<p>Surprised, Crowley turned to Rogers.</p>
<p><span><span><span>"So, congressman, I have to say, that was not the answer I expected," she said. "I expected to hear, 'Oh, we're safer.' Do you agree?"</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span>"I absolutely agree that we're not safer today for the same very reasons," he said. "So the pressure on our intelligence services to get it right to prevent an attack are enormous. And it's getting more difficult."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span>Rogers said that the U.S. is dealing with a new, "metastasized" version of al-Qaida &mdash; one that has many new affiliates around the world with different, smaller objectives.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></p>
<p>Here's the clip of their appearance:</p>
<p><object id="ep_1224" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="600" height="400"><embed src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_embed_2x_container.swf?site=cnn&amp;profile=desktop&amp;context=embed&amp;videoId=bestoftv/2013/11/30/exp-sotu-crowley-intelligence-chairs-feinstein-rogers-were-not-safer-today.cnn&amp;contentId=bestoftv/2013/11/30/exp-sotu-crowley-intelligence-chairs-feinstein-rogers-were-not-safer-today.cnn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="600" wmode="transparent" height="400" /></object></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rogers-feinstein-not-safer-terror-threats-intelligence-snowden-2013-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-obamacare-keep-your-plan-bill-2013-11California Democrat Signs Onto A Bill That Would Allow People To Keep Their Health Insurance Planshttp://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-obamacare-keep-your-plan-bill-2013-11
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 18:37:17 -0500Brett LoGiurato
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5282b907ecad049e3d5f3d4f-1200-924/dianne-feinstein-6.jpg" border="0" alt="Dianne Feinstein" /></p><p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has decided to co-sponsor legislation from Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would&nbsp;<span>require insurance companies to continue offering their existing health care plans, becoming the most high-profile non-red state Democrat to buck party lines on the Affordable Care Act.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span></span><span>Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday that she has received nearly 31,000 calls, emails, and letters from Californians detailing insurance-policy cancellations and premium spikes that have come with the implementation of Obamacare.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>She thinks Landrieu's bill is a way to fix that.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>"This bill provides a simple fix to a complex problem," Feinstein said in the statement.</p>
<p>"The&nbsp;Affordable Care Act&nbsp;is a good law, but it is not perfect. I believe the Landrieu bill is a commonsense fix that will protect individuals in the private insurance market from being forced to change their insurance plan. I hope Congress moves quickly to enact it."</p>
<p>Among other things, the "Keeping the Affordable Care Act Promise Act" would<span>&nbsp;"grandfather" in all health insurance plans that existed as of Dec. 31, 2013, not March 23, 2010, meaning that insurers could continue to offer a number of plans that they have been forced to cancel under the Affordable Care Act.</span></p>
<p><span><span>C</span><span>ustomers in the individual insurance market are finding they cannot keep their current policies if they have changed since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 and don't meet certain minimum requirements of the law. Insurers are even canceling some plans that they are legally entitled to continue offering because the law changes the economics of doing so.</span><span><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In her statement, Feinstein included the story of a phone call from a&nbsp;Rancho Mirage, Calif., man, who now receives just about the same coverage for $400 more a month.</span></p>
<p>Feinstein's public support for the bill serves as another sign that Democrats are becoming angsty over the Affordable Care Act's disastrous implementation, which has included that now-infamous broken promise and a dysfunctional website. Last week, President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-obamacare-2014-elections-democrats-senate-2013-11" target="_blank">met with every Senate Democrat up for re-election to hear their concerns</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Before Feinstein, Landrieu's bill had three other red-state Democrats as co-sponsors &mdash;&nbsp;<span>Sens. <span>Kay Hagan (D-N.C.),&nbsp;</span>Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).</span><span><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-obamacare-keep-your-plan-bill-2013-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-naval-yard-shooting-gun-control-2013-9After The Navy Yard Disaster, Democratic Senator Wants A New Gun Control Push: 'When Will Enough Be Enough?'http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-naval-yard-shooting-gun-control-2013-9
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:09:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5237d671eab8ea19378ca744-480-/dianne-feinstein-5.jpg" border="0" alt="Dianne Feinstein" width="480" /></p><p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) blasted Congress for "shirking its responsibility" and signaled a new focus on gun violence in the wake of the Washington Navy Yard shooting that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-navy-yard-shooting-2013-9" target="_blank">left 13 dead and wounded 14 others on Monday</a>.</p>
<p>Aaron Alexis, the gunman who allegedly killed 12 people in the rampage, used an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun, and a semiautomatic pistol in the shooting, according to early&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/shots-fired-washington-navy-yard-person-injured-fbi-article-1.1457156" target="_blank">reports</a>.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://twitter.com/PamelaBrownCNN/status/379960354841047040" target="_blank">report from CNN</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday, however, Alexis was not armed with an AR-15. According to the report, investigators recovered three weapons from the scene &mdash; a shotgun and two handguns. Investigators believe he may have taken the handguns from guards.</p>
<p><span>&ldquo;This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons&mdash;including a military-style assault rifle&mdash;and kill many people in a short amount of time," Feinstein said in a statement released Monday.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;When will enough be enough?</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country. We must do more to stop this endless loss of life.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p>Feinstein took a lead role in the gun control debate the last time it raged in Congress &mdash; after the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/assault-weapons-ban-feinstein-bill-2012-12" target="_blank">massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.</a>, last December.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, a Feinstein-sponsored bill to ban assault-style weapons failed by a large margin in the Senate. A bill to expand background checks, the legislation that had the best chance of passage, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-control-background-check-senate-vote-live-2013-4" target="_blank">also failed in a high-profile and emotional vote</a>.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has quietly moved forward on gun control since the failure. Late last month, President Barack <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-gun-control-executive-actions-loophole-2013-8" target="_blank">Obama introduced two new executive actions</a>&nbsp;aimed at tackling gun violence.</p>
<p>On Monday, he also hinted at a desire for a new gun control push in the wake of the Navy Yard shooting, lamenting in a press conference the dawn of "another mass shooting."</p>
<p><span>"It&rsquo;s a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel," he said. "These are men and women who were going to work, doing their job, protecting all of us. They&rsquo;re patriots, and they know the dangers of serving abroad &mdash; but today, they faced unimaginable violence that they wouldn't have expected here at home."</span></p>
<p><span><em>This post has been updated.</em><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-naval-yard-shooting-gun-control-2013-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-fight-unites-conservatives-liberals-2013-6The NSA Scandal Has Brought Bipartisanship Back To Washingtonhttp://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-fight-unites-conservatives-liberals-2013-6
Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:29:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/50c9fff569bedd5e1500000b-480-/al-franken.jpg" border="0" alt="Al Franken" width="480" /></p><p>Imagine this: Some of the most prominent conservative and liberal members of the Senate getting together to advance a bill challenging establishment positions on privacy.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It sounds unthinkable, especially in today's age of partisanship. But it is exactly what happened on Tuesday, when a bipartisan group of eight senators introduced a <a href="http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-end-secret-law" target="_blank">bill</a>&nbsp;that would unseal certain opinions handed down by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.</p>
<p>The bill follows new revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, which have been exposed in a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-nsa-leak-booz-allen-hamilton-2013-6" target="_blank">series of leaks by 29-year-old former NSA contractor Edward Snowden</a>.</p>
<p>The ensuing debate has divided political partisans into schisms unlike any other debate in recent memory. It has led conservatives and liberals to team up on different sides of the coin.</p>
<p>That led six of the Senate's most liberal members &mdash; Democratic Sens. Pat Leahy (Vt.),&nbsp;<span>Mark Begich (Alaska), Al Franken (Minn.), Jon Tester (Mont.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.), and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) &mdash; to team up with Republican Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Mike Lee (Utah), a Tea Party favorite.</span></p>
<p><span><span>The bill "will help ensure that the government makes sensitive decisions related to surveillance by applying legal standards that are known to the public," Lee said in a statement. "Particularly where our civil liberties are at stake, we must demand no less of our government."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Lee is not surprised at how the issue has produced some bipartisan agreement, said his press secretary, Emily Bennion.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"It shouldn't be partisan. Government abusing its power affects us all," she told Business Insider.</span></span></span></p>
<p>The debate has focused on the balance between privacy and intelligence gathering in an attempt to thwart terror plots.&nbsp;</p>
<p>On the side of strict protection of privacy are people like Sens. Lee and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), along with those Democratic senators. They are joined by conservative media titans Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Matt Drudge, and liberal figures like filmmaker Michael Moore and Glenn Greenwald, who has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-greenwald-mika-brzezinski-video-morning-joe-nsa-scandal-2013-6" target="_blank">broken many of the stories relating to the leaks</a>.</p>
<p>In the other corner defending surveillance practices is President Barack Obama, who has shifted his stance as president. He has been joined by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-traitor-john-boehner-nsa-leak-whistleblower-2013-6" target="_blank">House Speaker John Boehner</a>, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Also in this camp are influential media voices like the left-leaning&nbsp;<em>Time</em> magazine's Joe Klein and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-toobin-edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-prison-2013-6" target="_blank"><em>The New Yorker</em><em>'s&nbsp;</em>Jeffrey Toobin</a>, as well as conservative media figures like Charles Krauthammer.</p>
<p>"Frankly, I was initially stunned that so many conservatives dismissed this so cavalierly," <span>said Matt Lewis, a conservative columnist for The Daily Caller, in an email.</span>&nbsp;"Likewise, I'm shocked to have found common cause with some liberals who care deeply about preserving the Constitution (who knew?). This issue makes for strange bedfellows, to be sure."</p>
<p>The depth of the unusual divide on the issue has been illuminated most clearly with Greenwald, who was a constant critic of President George W. Bush's policies on surveillance. This time, liberal critics have heaped more scrutiny on him.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/odonnell-to-glenn-greenwald-if-the-nsa-knows-everything-why-didnt-they-know-you-were-talking-to-snowden/" target="_blank">MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell challenged Greenwald</a>&nbsp;on Monday night. Before that, "Morning Joe" co-host <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-greenwald-mika-brzezinski-video-morning-joe-nsa-scandal-2013-6" target="_blank">Mika Brzezinski and Greenwald got into a testy exchange</a> over the legality of the Obama administration's actions. At one point, Greenwald accused her of reading "White House talking points."</p>
<p><span>"Not much surprises me these days, but this has," Lewis said. "It clearly transcends the normal partisan &mdash; and even ideological &mdash; divides."</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-fight-unites-conservatives-liberals-2013-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>